God's love is an unconditional love WE ALL receive, and yet none of us deserve it. Thats the meaning of grace from GodYou see, unfortunatley there's still some people that are what I like to call Scribes and Pharisees. I myself, used to be one of them.You see, often people are so mandatory with God. They only pray when they awake, and go to sleep.Read the bible at a specific time, and go to church on sunday. They sow the same amount every week, say the same prayer everytime they pray.Spiritually, they're dead. And why is that?Well, self-rightousness. They feel so high and mighty because they follow the law(that is, the commandments) that they forgot what Jesus represented.Peace and Love. Or rather, Love and Peace(for Peace follows those who Love)Much like the Pharisees, often times you'll see them judge people on MAN's rituals, and not God's They'll see someone with a lot of tattoos, piercings, and so forth and say "That's not how a Christian should look!"They judge people on the outward things, and take heed to such stuff, and the way they THINK their obeying God,winds up going against God and His teachings.Let's look to Jesus himself for an example about said situation.Matthew 15:1 through 11Then some Pharisees and scribes came from Jerusalem to Jesus. They asked,"Why do your disciples break the traditions of our ancestors? They do not wash their hands before they eat."He answered them, "Why do you break the commandment of God because of your traditions?For example, God said, 'Honor your father and your mother' and 'Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.'But you say that whoever tells his father or mother, 'I have given to God whatever support you might have received from me,'does not have to honor his father. Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God's word.Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.Their worship of me is pointless, because their teachings are rules made by humans.'"And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.See, some of us judge people on their outward appearance, like "Oh, they have tattoos, and piercings. Surely thisnot how a christian should dress or present himself!"See, this saying Jesus spoke of does not just regard eating, but how we should think about all matters of whats onthe outward.Let's go back to this for a second, "Why do you break the commandment of God because of your traditions?"You see, the Scribes and Pharisees believed that they didn't have to honour their mother and father, because theyspend most of their time worshipping, so all the work that they had to give out, they gave to God, and couldn'tbare to give to their parents.No, nowhere in the bible does it say that we should do that, but that was something the Scribs and Pharisees came upwith on their own, as their own tradition.So, my point being is thisNowhere in the bible does it say "Thou shalt not dress a certain way, and must fit stereotypical christian outsideappearance which stems from what others asssume christians to beYou ever hear the saying, kill two birds with one stone?Well that's what some of us our doing, except we're commiting three acts of sin with one stone.See, we're not only judging people which is wrong to begin with, but we're FALSELY judging them, not bassed offGod's word even, but our own made up tradition!And excuse, but such a thing is actually commiting THREE acts of wrong doing, and what's worst we think we're doinggood! we think somehow we're glorifying God in doing so!We're not just Judging them, and falsely judging them bassed off our own tradition, but we're also focusing on theoutside, and not the inside. Let's go to our Lord again for an example.Read this, Luke 11:38-42The Pharisee was surprised to see that Jesus didn't wash before the meal.And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.You fools! Didn't the one who made the outside make the inside too?Give what is inside as a gift to the poor, and then everything will be clean for you."How horrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give God one-tenth of your mint, spices, and every garden herb. But you have ignored justice and the love of God. You should have done these things without ignoring the others.Now let me break this down to you in three different aspects.The Pharisees we're wrong for worrying so much about the outside of the cup and platter, feeling if it was dirty it would be consider "unholy"yet at the same time, they were filled with unholiness on the inside.It's such a vain and disgusting thing to judge the outwardly things, without looking on the inside.Some people wear a suit and a tie to church, they look like a good christian, and we assume so.But then we see someone who has a pair of ripped jeans on, dyed hair, a T Shirt with a band on it, but they to are at church, we assume that personjust came because their parents made them.And usuly, the people who worry about outwardly things, tend to "worry" and often judge other people on the little sins, like swearing and so forth, yetthey forgot the biggest thing of all! They're so focused on the don'ts, they forgot about the Do's, and by doing so, they even do one of the worst don'ts,judging!This is what Jesus meant by "How horrible it will be for you Pharisees! You give God one-tenth of your mint, spices, and every garden herb. But you have ignored justice and the love of God. You should have done these things without ignoring the others."Yeah, they were doing right about not swearing and so forth, but they were so caught up on the little dont's, they disobeyed God by judging others for doingthem, and forgot what Christianity is about! Love!So let's go down the list: 1:They judge people in general 2:They judge them by what appears on the outside3
oing number 2 is disobeying God not only by judging, but by judging people for something that they haven't done wrong, but what they think is wrong bytheir OWN traditions, and not Jesus's teachings.If you've done such a thing, any of it, I bring no judgement toward you.Because I, too used to judge others about little things, and used to wash my hands before reading the bible as if it's a must and God was gonna punish meif I didn't, and I realized three major things.1, I can't judge people.2, I was judging people for doing the little things, and by doing so I was doing something even worst, judging and lot loving!This is exactly what Jesus meant by"You give God one-tenth of your mint, spices, and every garden herb. But you have ignored justice and the love of God. You should have done these things without ignoring the others."I was so focused on the little don'ts, I forgot about the biggest don't, and the Do's!Don't judge, and Love one another, and peace!See, many of us judge one another for outwardly things, and little stuff that actually isn't wrong. Maybe some of you don't judge others, but just avoid themthinking you're honouring God.Like example, some of you may think it's wrong to watch a violent movie, or listen to a non christian band, or wont have anything to do with things that areinvolved with non believers, but The Apostle Paul tells us otherwise.Eat anything that is sold in the market without letting your conscience trouble you.Certainly, "The earth is the Lord's and everything it contains is his."Meaning, don't let your conscience trouble you thinking "What if this food was sacrificed to idols?"or rather"This DVD I wanna buy is made by a non believer, I shouldn't buy it"If an unbeliever invites you to his house for dinner, and you wish to go, eat anything he serves you without letting your conscience trouble you.However, if someone says to you, "This was sacrificed to a god," don't eat it because of the one who informed you and because of conscience.I'm not talking about your conscience but the other person's conscience. Why should my freedom be judged by someone else's conscience?If I give thanks to God for the food I eat, why am I condemned for that?So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God.Now, you can eat with non believers, you can watch anything you want(save for pornography, for that is very much a sin)And it won't hinder your faith God, and God won't be angry with you, the only time you shouldn't do it is when one of your christians friend say"Hey, uhm...dude, that movie your renting is really violent, and it's not something a christian should watch."Now, you being wise know that watching a movie isn't gonna hinder your faith in God, and has nothing to do with that, and it's not wrongBut, just don't do it for the other believer, because you may cause him to stumble and stop looking up to your guidance along his path with Christ.So basically, as I read somehwere else what Paul was trying to say with the whole thing was "Chill out, relax!"Because such things wont harm your faith, but only the worrying about things harming your faith actually does, for it causes a distraction and much friction in the believers mind.I mean, if we go around all day worrying about such things, then we take away time from actually showing God howmuch we love Him. Amen.
oing number 2 is disobeying God not only by judging, but by judging people for something that they haven't done wrong, but what they think is wrong bytheir OWN traditions, and not Jesus's teachings.If you've done such a thing, any of it, I bring no judgement toward you.Because I, too used to judge others about little things, and used to wash my hands before reading the bible as if it's a must and God was gonna punish meif I didn't, and I realized three major things.1, I can't judge people.2, I was judging people for doing the little things, and by doing so I was doing something even worst, judging and lot loving!This is exactly what Jesus meant by"You give God one-tenth of your mint, spices, and every garden herb. But you have ignored justice and the love of God. You should have done these things without ignoring the others."I was so focused on the little don'ts, I forgot about the biggest don't, and the Do's!Don't judge, and Love one another, and peace!See, many of us judge one another for outwardly things, and little stuff that actually isn't wrong. Maybe some of you don't judge others, but just avoid themthinking you're honouring God.Like example, some of you may think it's wrong to watch a violent movie, or listen to a non christian band, or wont have anything to do with things that areinvolved with non believers, but The Apostle Paul tells us otherwise.Eat anything that is sold in the market without letting your conscience trouble you.Certainly, "The earth is the Lord's and everything it contains is his."Meaning, don't let your conscience trouble you thinking "What if this food was sacrificed to idols?"or rather"This DVD I wanna buy is made by a non believer, I shouldn't buy it"If an unbeliever invites you to his house for dinner, and you wish to go, eat anything he serves you without letting your conscience trouble you.However, if someone says to you, "This was sacrificed to a god," don't eat it because of the one who informed you and because of conscience.I'm not talking about your conscience but the other person's conscience. Why should my freedom be judged by someone else's conscience?If I give thanks to God for the food I eat, why am I condemned for that?So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God.Now, you can eat with non believers, you can watch anything you want(save for pornography, for that is very much a sin)And it won't hinder your faith God, and God won't be angry with you, the only time you shouldn't do it is when one of your christians friend say"Hey, uhm...dude, that movie your renting is really violent, and it's not something a christian should watch."Now, you being wise know that watching a movie isn't gonna hinder your faith in God, and has nothing to do with that, and it's not wrongBut, just don't do it for the other believer, because you may cause him to stumble and stop looking up to your guidance along his path with Christ.So basically, as I read somehwere else what Paul was trying to say with the whole thing was "Chill out, relax!"Because such things wont harm your faith, but only the worrying about things harming your faith actually does, for it causes a distraction and much friction in the believers mind.I mean, if we go around all day worrying about such things, then we take away time from actually showing God howmuch we love Him. Amen.
